Do treadmills offer the same advantages as an outdoor run or walk?

Published:  05/05/2013

If you consider the intensity of the workout alone, research indicates that running or walking outdoors provides a slightly better workout than doing it on a treadmill. But that doesn't mean you should get rid your treadmill. With a little creativity, you can even the score.

One factor that makes outdoor running a better workout is wind resistance. A second reason has to do with biomechanics. Outdoor running requires pushing off against the ground, while treadmill running is a more air-borne activity, with the ground moving beneath the runner. If you use proper, upright form and raise the elevation of the treadmill to one-percent to compensate for the lack of wind and ground resistance.

Monitoring your heart rate can also provide valuable information about how to compensate for the differences between the surfaces. Track your heart rate during outdoor and treadmill workouts. If there's a difference, you can make up for the loss. Increase the speed or elevation on the treadmill to compensate for example.

Treadmills do offer one technological training advantage that nature can't match. Interval training, a method that runners rely upon to increase their speed, may be more challenging on a treadmill than on the pavement.

Different running surfaces provide different impacts involved and the stresses which make their way up to your joints. Grass, woodland trails, earth, cinders, synthetic track and are the best training surfaces for most runners followed by the treadmill. But the treadmill is a better surface than asphalt, sand, concrete and snow.